Well I have some questions :-). Your shrubs seem to be pittosporums which is cool but do you know what type they are? I've seen them as dwarfs and as small trees. Also when I look up Razzle Dazzle I keep on seeing them as a dwarfing variety. Blackfoots can take full sun and you appear to have them in part shade. Also something many gardeners overlook is if they have way too much hardwood mulch in their beds. You go out and spray fertilizers around plants but the high carbon material in mulch can lock up nitrogen. Sometimes its hard to go through the sleep, creep, leap phase but your front actually looks very nice and I think it will all go well for you.

I was going to ask how you keep your pittosporums so small, but phoenix7801 may have answered that. Mine are about 4' tall.

I would leave your blackfoot daisies. They are so pretty when they spill over stonework. And they will show up a lot better with the blue salvia behind them.

The pittosporums are Dwarf Cream De Mint. The crape myrtle is Berry Razzle Dazzle. I was wrong on the size. The tag say 3-4' tall and wide. Below is a picture of a Razzle Dazzle in my aunt's neighborhood. I think its Raspberry. I would love mine to look like this one day.

I was picturing a row of one single plant in the front, but I love this look also. I just don't know how to put it together to look right.

I hope this isn't too confusing. This is what I do when I'm trying to find the right plants for a garden bed. I'm not always good with types of plants available. I look at what I have and then think about color combinations, textures, and heights that would look good. I go to a nursery and try to match a plant to those specifications.

I'd find a good nursery and wander through to see what catches your eye. A good nursery will have plants in the appropriate sections based on water, sun and other needs. You can walk through the appropriate area and see what is available to fit your color, height, and texture needs. They will usually have someone who can answer questions or I use my cell phone to look at growing conditions for specific plants.

I'm not sure of the daisies and the salvia because of their sun needs. I think your flower bed has a good start and would otherwise leave things where you have them planted. I would look at your bed in terms of color grouping and texture. Your daisies or another white flower will show up a lot better when you have something contrasting color or darker planted behind them. That salvia would look pretty. If that isn't enough sun for the salvia, I'd look for another purple/ blue plant to go back there.

I think you could plant something like five salvias or other blue/purple plant behind your daisies. Intersperse it with either medium size red/pink flowers or yellow flowers. Make it so you have a grouping of two or three of the red or yellow flowers. This would probably give you some texture and height variation. The salvia wouldn't over whelm the bed or be too tall. The flowers would pop when you looked at it from the street.

The purple oxalis would show off better if you had something lighter color planted around it. A short grass like a variegated liriope might look nice. Some of the lighter colored ground cover plants with pink, purple or white flowers would be pretty.

the bed does face north and I have a tall tree in the front yard, so I've hard a hard time figuring out whether to plant sun or shade plants. The first year I planted begonias for the shade and they burned up, so I switched to sun plants. The pittosporums don't get any direct sun in the back, but the plants up front do. I'm hoping when I get my tree trimmed, it will let more son in. I found this picture and I wondered about moving the middle black foot daisy to another spot and plant 4-nerve daisy inbetween the black foot daisies. Is there anything purple/blue that does good with some shade that I could put behind these?

I bought a new-to-me liriope this year that's kind of silvery looking. Maybe I could plant that behind the oxalis. I've also seen Santolina at the nursery for something gray.Then maybe I could put some of the flirt nandinas to the right and left of the daisies. In the picture I posted above from the Central Texas Gardener, do you know what the two plants are behind the purples oxalis on the left? This looks like it might be a shade garden.

I would really love to have something that stands out in the neighborhood, but I just don't know how to put it together. I hired someone at my old house one time and was so disappointed in their boring suggestions. It was in the backyard and we were at a loss of what else to do, so we just went with their suggestions. If anyone knows of someone in the DFW area that does exceptional work, please let me know.

Not sure what the other plants are.

I've had flower beds that were mixed sun before. You might go with what you've already chosen and see how it handles the conditions. Worst case, you may have to replace it.

If you aren't adverse to annuals, you could try something sun loving and fairly hardy like vinca and zinnia there. They would provide a huge pop of color. Some of the zinnias in white and yellow look like daisies. You can also get zinnea in pinks, purples, reds, and oranges. Vinca comes in white, purples, reds, and pinks. If you group or layer the colors together, you'll get something that looks more like the very colorful last picture.

You don't have have to get this done all at once. Work on an area and then stand back and look at it. Since you already have the daisies and a salvia, start there. Go to a nursery and grab a daisy and salvia like you have. Put them together in your cart and walk down the aisles. If you see a flower that catches your attention, set it next to the salvia and daisy. Stand back and look at it. Does it pop? Or does it just sort of meld together? I'd go for the one that pops.

Does your area around the crepe myrtle get enough sun for daylillies? Yellow or orange ones will be more visible from the street. You could plant a row of something bushy and shorter in front of them so that part looks sort of hedge like.

If you decide to replace the crepe myrtle, I'd choose something with a 5-10' height that is more of an evergreen. It will provide more interest for your house in winter and be a good back drop for other plants in spring and summer.

I've done annuals the last couple of years, but I would really like to start adding perennials. I didn't have any good luck plant shopping today. I went back to buy two more of Blue Victoria salvia, but they were all gone. I'm hoping they get some more in this week. The silvery grass I have in the back is Aztec grass Liriope. The ones at Lowes and HD were so small, I ended up not buying them. I think the area around the crape myrtle gets enough sun for daylilies, but I've actually started get rid of some of the ones I have, because the leaves brown so much in the heat of the summer. Of course my Stellas D' Oro's look gorgeous right now. I would love to put a Japanese Maple where the crape myrtle is, but I think it gets too much sun.

Thanks for all the suggestions!

Playing with options is a good way to learn. You might check out a plumbago (blue) as a potential shrub. It does well in partly shaded areas. I know there are so many options it can get a little overwhelming but you might take that picture with you to a good nursery and have them help you put something together. Or just keep looking at how others have grouped their gardens and make notes, as you have done, of what appeals to you and just try it. You can always move and replace plants as you learn. I think I might be tempted to soften that window by building a trellis to surround it and finding a beautiful flowering vine (preferably one that will stay green much of the year). Enjoy the process.

I like your flowerbed. You need many more blackfoot daisies all along the whole front. Then you need tons more of the salvias you have to fill in the space in between. Since you like the color of the purple oxalis, you might consider using ipomea "blackie" or "ace of spades" to fill in some of the space in between. It is similar color and will fill in this year. It will die out in winter, but you may decide that's not the color anyway. Keep experimenting.

Carla

I've been to Lowe's, Home Depot, and three local nurseries in the last couple of weeks. All have been lacking in flowers. The nurseries had the best selection. I would just keep checking back.

cdp - I had no idea there was more than one black sweet potato vine. I actually just planted tricolor sweet potato vine. I wasn't really thinking about what would look best. I just thought the tricolor was pretty. I may have to try the black next year. I planted black mondo grass at my old house and it didn't make it. I've thought about trying it again.

I went ahead and planted my salvia yesterday. I just hope the nurseries get more in this weekend!

Love your stone border! I am enclosing a photo of a small bed behind my horse barn that I started this spring. It is much fuller now but don't have a photo. I enjoy beds with various plants - roses, daylilies, perennials, annuals. I also include stonework like birdbaths, statues, trellises with clematis, climbing roses. Different things bloom at different times. I love giant lirope to provide the "bones" of a bed if there is no room for a tree or large shrub.

You could plant a vitex at the far left corner for some height and it blooms right now and you can let it be a shrub or trim it like a tree and keep it at any size you want. Some stone like a birdbath would be nice. You could place roses in different parts of the bed then interject daylilies. When not in bloom, they look like lirope and you can tuck annuals amongst them. I love my cottage garden beds because there is always something blooming which makes them fun to work in.

Trimming the tree branches is a good idea, they seem like they are hanging down and block the view of the house. Lots of possibilities here. You might consider adding a bit more good soil to come almost up to the top of the border - more room for plant roots to grow and raise the plants up so they are not sitting down inside the bed. If you want to put a trellis in, clematis or miniature climbing roses would work. I grow a lot of roses so at the risk of using a jaded cliché......the Knockout roses offer a lot of bang for the buck, if you are not into spraying or coddling roses. My favorites are the double red and pink knockouts. I have a bed that is edged in dwarf boxwood - behind it I have giant lirope and candy pink double Knockout roses and clematis on pretty iron trellises. In the bed is a large shell shaped concrete fountain that I had a hole drilled in and use it for trailing potato vine and colorful annuals.

You could do a bed in all one color - I have my deck planted in lavenders, purples.

Get a chair and a cool drink and sit under the tree with a pad and see what ideas come to you and sketch them out. This is a great bed - you will have fun with it! Post photos when you finish!
Judith

Judith - Thank you for all the ideas and the picture. What are the beautiful orange flowers in your bed? I don't normally like orange, but those are really pretty. I actually love KO roses and that's something I have considered. I just wish they didn't get so big. I know you can keep them trimmed back, but I was looking for something that I could plant and forget. I have a red one on the side of my house, and even though they say you don't have to prune the spent blooms, I end up doing it anyway. I know it would give me that punch of color I want though, so I still may end up going that route.

I planted a Flirt Nandina, two more Salvias, and a coreopsis, so it's starting to fill out a little more, but still doesn't stand out as much as I would like.. As much as I love Black Foot Daisies, they don't show up very well from the street, so I'm thinking I would prefer something yellow. My mother said she has a gold lantana in her yard that stays low, so I'm going to go look at it today. If it's what I'm looking for, I'll take a picture and see if I can find out what kind it is.

I think my purple oxalis is getting too much sun, so I may move it somewhere else. I thought about planting a pink drift rose in the front right (more maintenance), but I will have to move the coreopsis I just planted behind the oxalis if I do that. I'm also not sure how big Pink Drift gets. I've been watching one at the front of a neighborhood near me and the darn lawn people keep cutting it back. I passed yesterday and it was full of blooms and gorgeous. I went by again later in the day and they had scalped it.

Pink Drift

This post was edited by msrose on Sun, Jun 8, 14 at 8:53

This is still a work in progress, but I wanted to show you what I've added/changed. It's still not a "wow" flowerbed, so I'm hoping you can tell me where to go from here.

I was planning to put something silver behind the purples oxalis, but then I came across this cute Mercury Rising coreopsis on clearance at Lowes. I'm not sure it looks good behind the oxalis, so I'm not sure if one should go and what to put in its place.

{{gwi:253680}}

I put the black foot daisies in the back and replace them with zinnia for more color. I don't really like orange, but they didn't have yellow where I went and I can always do something different next year.

It doesn't show up very well right now, but there's a Flirt Nandina to the left of the zinnia.

My crape myrtle is blooming now. It's more fuscia than it looks here. I think I'm going to more the sweet potato vine to a more sunny spot in the backyard. It's not doing much here.

My pittosporums are showing more summer damage than in the past. Do you think I need to replace the one on the end that shows the most damage?

{{gwi:268088}}

Here is another look from my above flowerbed, later in season. As daylilies fade [which they are doing now] I will add periwinkles and whatever else looks good in the nurseries. Like the crepe myrtle - it should grow and make a bigger statement as time goes on. I would fill in the bed with more good soil to bring it almost up to top of edging - plants look like they are sitting down in the bed rather than on a level with the edging. Like the coreopsis - I would add more of those. Salvia blooms all summer, is taller and adds the blue/purple tones. Perwinkles are great this time of year - spots of white make a bed really stand out - the pure white periwinkles are great. I like to balance my beds with taller shrub roses [Lady Elsie May, Easy Does It], daylily foliage looks good even when not in bloom. I try not to do "one of this, one of that" look - put in the "bones" of the shrub roses, boxwood, lirope then fill in with annuals, perennials. Add some height to balance.

I like mexican oregano for extended perennial color in sun - dappled shade. It is a heat lover and gives color through the heat of summer.

@alameda, how is your bed? i just notice this post because I bought Razzle Dazzle CM today. I'm using them in front of Bayberry. When I looked at your pics- with that gorgeous curved stonework - I wondered if you put in Evergreens for structure and form. tastes do vary, evergreens have a lot of flexibility and what you choose (boxwood, holly, laurel, dystillium, rhodendron, nandina, arborvitae, juniper). they really do add "bones" to a garden art piece. like plant a few 2-4ft boxwoods along the curve...and anchoring the driveway... leaving space for your perennial ""spillers" onto the stone.

vitex was a great suggestion for the left! would be a 10 ft be beauty, with some screening.

hope it worked out to your liking, and you had fun.

This posting is 5 years old and the original poster may not come to the forums any longer.

Unfortunately, none of my Razzle Dazzles did good and I ended up taking them out. Which one did you get? Maybe it's one I didn't try. I replaced the CP in this bed for a carpet rose that was perfect for the spot, but then it and all of the other roses in my yard developed Rose Rosette disease. Now I have to come up with another option for the circle on the left.

Lots of people I enjoyed on this forum no longer post. I will be here [and gardening] til they haul me away in a pine box! Or a compost cart........

not sure where the rest of my post went!